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Inspirational Quotations by Haruki Murakami (Japanese Novelist)

Murakami Haruki (b.1949) is a Japanese novelist, short-story writer, and translator. Many of his deeply imaginative and often ambiguous books have became international best sellers. Presenting elements of surrealism and magical realism, his many works are considered to be an important contribution to postmodern literature.

Born in Kyōto, Japan, Japanese novelist Murakami’s first novel, Kaze no uta o kike (1979; Hear the Wind Sing; film, 1980,) won a prize for best fiction by a new writer. Contrary to the self-confessions that dominate the mainstream of modern Japanese literature, Murakami’s writing is characterized by images and events that the author himself found difficult to explain but which seemed to come from the inner recesses of his memory.

Fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn’t something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of you. So all you can do is give in to it, step right inside the storm, closing your eyes and plugging up your ears so the sand doesn’t get in, and walk through it, step by step.—Haruki Murakami

Time weighs down on you like an old ambiguous dream. You keep on moving, trying to slip through it. But even if you go to the ends of the earth, you won’t be able to escape it. Still, you have to go there—to the edge of the world. There’s something you can’t do unless you get there.—Haruki Murakami

The pure present is an ungraspable advance of the past devouring the future. In truth, all sensation is already memory.—Haruki Murakami

Better to be a first-class matchbox than a second-class match.—Haruki Murakami